Automatic Cameras

Automatic Cameras

by William Lulow

I was just reading how Apple has come out with yet another great version of its iPhone, this time with a much better camera and lens. Most of us have gotten fairly adept at using our iPhones as cameras to record a whole host of subjects because these machines always seem to be in our pockets. But how many of us are really happy with the images? Well, if your are any kind of discerning photographer (and this doesn’t mean you have to be able to take pictures for a living), you will recognize some limitations of these cameras. The first that comes to mind is that iPhones don’t have a viewfinder. Nothing that you can put your eye up to to look at the scene your photographing. This inherently means that you kind of have to hold it at arms length to see, on the screen, what you are photographing. Ever try to hold something, and I don’t care how heavy or light it is, at arms length for any length of time? What you often wind up with, unless you can take the picture quickly, is a somewhat blurry image, although sometimes, the softness is hard to see unless you try to make an enlargement of the image. And that’s where the process breaks down. The iPhone is so light that it’s very hard to handhold it. And because it has no viewfinder, you can’t steady it by putting it up to your eye.

So, if you are intent on using your iPhone to create images of which you can really be proud, here are a couple of tips for any point-and-shoot, automatic cameras:

1. Try to use it on some kind of MANUAL mode. Take them off AUTOMATIC so that you can make adjustments yourself and not rely on the camera’s computer to do your thinking for you. (This takes some learning about how to use a camera on MANUAL mode.)
2. Try to learn about what is referred to as the EXPOSURE TRIANGLE of ISO settings, SHUTTER SPEED and APERTURE.
3. Get a TRIPOD to steady the camera.
4. Try not to use the FLASH when taking portraits. Or take the time to ask people to look down just a bit when you are using the flash.
5. Make sure you have enough light before using the camera on full TELEPHOTO mode. Remember: the lens is not as sharp when used in this mode.

For the most part, camera phones function like most “point-and-shoot” cameras that are essentially what we used to call “rangefinder” cameras. These cameras have a viewfinder that aids in selecting your view of the subject, but you are not looking through the same lens that actually takes the picture. So, you get a somewhat different view than what is seen by the camera’s sensor. (This is not the case with iPhones though). Some point-and-shoot cameras allow you to photograph a scene by looking at the LCD screen the way camera phones do. This will cause you to have to hold it at arm’s length as well. A technique that is not conducive to obtaining first rate results.

I have spoken before of trying to slow down your approach to taking pictures, rather than just snap away; to THINK more about the kinds of images you are trying to make. Sometimes the camera phone is great just to document something or someplace or someone. That’s fine. But those photos are usually not the ones you might think of putting on your wall. For that, you need to be able to control more of what the camera is “seeing” and how it sees it.

There are controls on the iPhone as well as on sophisticated DSLRs. You can adjust the exposure as well as the focus points and you can also do some post-processing right on the phone itself with the aid of a couple of free apps. I do it all the time. But for real quality images that can stand large blowups, I always use my DSLRs.

This is one of my studio setups for a portrait I was about to do. I often use my iPhone just for this purpose, to document what my setups were for a given assignment. When there is enough light, it is well suited to this task.

Here’s a shot of me shooting out on Michigan Avenue in Chicago for a magazine cover. I haven’t tried to make large prints of these images, but it can be done if you follow the guidelines I have provided above.